This electronic glove can give robots a human touch

BOSTON: Stanford scientists have developed an electronic glove containing sensors that could someday give robotic hands a human touch and dexterity.

In a study published in the journal Science Robotics, researchers showed that the sensors worked well enough to allow a robotic hand to touch a delicate berry and manipulate a ping pong ball without crushing it.

"This technology allows us to one day give robots the kind of detection capabilities found in human skin," said Zhenan Bao, of Stanford University in the United States.

The sensors located in the glove fingers simultaneously measure the intensity and direction of pressure, two qualities essential to manual dexterity, researchers said.

They still need to perfect the technology to automatically control these sensors, but in this case, a robot carrying the glove could have the dexterity to hold an egg between the thumb and forefinger without breaking it or letting it slip.

The electronic glove mimics how layers of human skin work together to give our hands extraordinary sensitivity.

Researchers have stated that our outer skin layer is impregnated with sensors to detect pressure, heat and other stimuli. Our fingers and palms are particularly rich in tactile sensors.

Postdoctoral researcher Clémentine Boutry and student Master Marc Negre led the development of electronic sensors that mimic this human mechanism.

Each sensor on the robotic glove finger is composed of three flexible layers that work together.

The upper and lower layers are electrically active. The researchers placed a grid of power lines on each of the two facing surfaces, like lines in a field, and rotated these lines perpendicularly to create a dense network of small detection pixels.

They also made the bottom layer bumpy like spinosum.

To test their technology, the researchers placed their three-layer sensors on the fingers of a rubber glove and then on a robotic hand.

Ultimately, the goal is to integrate sensors directly into a skin type coating for robotic hands.

In an experiment, they programmed the robotic hand wearing gloves to gently touch a bay without damaging it. They also programmed the gloved hand to lift and move a ping pong ball without crushing it, using the sensor to detect the proper shear force to grab the ball without dropping it.

With proper programming, a robotic hand carrying the current tactile sensing glove could perform a repetitive task, such as lifting eggs from a treadmill and placing them in cartons.

The technology could also have applications in robot-assisted surgery, where precise touch control is essential.

However, the ultimate goal is to develop an advanced version of the glove that automatically applies the force needed to handle an object safely without prior programming.

"We can program a robotic hand to touch a raspberry without crushing it, but we are far from being able to touch and detect that it's a raspberry." and allow the robot to grab it, "said Bao.